The Dangerous Fall
by jbutton
Summary: John Carter is having back pain,from the stabbing incident 3 years ago, he later gets hurt again and hides his suffering from his friends at County. Will he tell his friends the suffering he's going through before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, except for the storyline is all mine. The E.R Show and characters areowned by creator Michael Crichton and the NBC television station. The story takes place a few years after the incident of Carter being stabbed by the schizophrenic patient Paul Sobricki on the Halloween night of the year of 2000 that happened just 3 years ago. The story is after the stabbing in 2000, around the year 2003 but before the trip to Africa.

Characters: John Carter, Susan Lewis, Luka Kovac, Abby Lockhart, Kerry Weaver, Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen, Neela Rasgotra, Micheal Gallant, Gregory Pratt, Ray Barnett, Samantha Taggart, Lydia, Yosh, Chuny, Haleh, Malik, Frank, Peter Benton, Robert "Rocket" Romano and Elizabeth Corday.

Episode: "The Dangerous Fall"

Show Introduction:

The story starts off at 5 A.M. with John Carter sound asleep in his bed at the Carter mansion. He was lying in bed asleep when all of a sudden he bolts straight up in bed covered in sweat and his hands trembling terribly, and then he gets this searing, burning sensation rising up his back, like his muscles and spine are on fire. Then he gets a very sharp jabbing pain in his lower left side of his back, feeling as if he is being stabbed with the large 6'' inch butcher knife by the psycho patient all over again. The pain is increasing more by the second, Carter tries to move but can't because of the pain and is paralyzed in the sitting position unable to move, but he still tries and regrets it right away as he cringes in agony, sweat dripping from his brow along with tears of pain swelling up in his eyes and sliding down his face, proving that this pain cannot be good. So Carter decides to sit until the pain isn't as bad before getting some Motrin to help the problem, a little while later the extreme burning sensation begins to subside and he tries to move slowly off the bed, his feet on the floor and then Carter gingerly shuffles across the room towards the doorway of the bathroom walking into the room heading to the sink, he opens the medicine cabinet gets cup of water and 2 extra strength Motrin of an amount that he normally wouldn't take, but does even though he knows that he shouldn't with his medication history. But now at this point he doesn't really care because the pain is enough for him not to care, and he feels like he's going to die from the torture. Slowly he shuffles again back to bed, half way there he almost collapses from the pain but then regains balance and makes it to the side of the bed. Carter carefully gets back in bed, pulls the covers over him and looks at the clock which reads that it's almost 6 A.M. and that a few minutes earlier at 5 A.M. was when he began his journey to get the pain medication to relieve his agony which he hopes by taking the as a stronger does is that it would kick in quickly so he can sleep for his shift at 9 A.M. While he was thinking this, the back pain slowly became a dull throbbing pain which made him relax a little until finally drifting to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Theme Song plays...

Chapter 2:

Carter then woke up the next morning, looked at the clock which read 10 A.M. and then he popped right up out of bed, scrambled with his clothes and work bag in a major hurry cause he had overslept and was now a hour late to work.

Once ready and racing out the door without breakfast and no time to eat, he also noticed that the dull throbbing pain was still in his back and left side but he tried to ignore it as he drove his jeep to the hospital parking lot, while Carter was on his way he'd thought of calling the E.R. to tell Kerry Weaver why he was so late for shift but decided not to because he figured that whether over the phone or face to face Kerry would chew him out either way no matter what the excuse he said of the situation.

When he pulled into the hospital parking lot, grabbed his stuff locked the car and ran through the ambulance bay to the E.R. entrance doors, he stops at the front desk with nobody around except for Dr. Deb Chen treating a patient near the desk, she looks up sees him then back helping the patient. Carter bag in hand starts to head to the lounge to put his stuff away when he starts to suddenly get lightheaded and dizzy but still continues walking not noticing the wet floor when taking his next step, loosing footing he slips on the shiny surface and falls down hard flat on his back and once again the searing, excruciating back and left back side pain along with fire sensation returns. He can feel his head hit the floor, he then lays there not moving, eyes closed hoping the pain to stop and after a few seconds it then lessens to a painful constant throbbing in his back. Carter still on the floor his eyes closed for a bit, and then he opens them and sees her above him.

Deb: "John, are you okay?"

Deb: "John don't move, Malik can I get a gurney over here" she says to him who's standing near by, he starts to go get one.

The pain still hurts but isn't bad enough, and he thinks that he could try to stand and start walking like nothing happened, still in terrible pain and not telling anyone. As Carter is getting up to stand as well as he can, he then begins walking away from the admin. desk but only after he gets a few steps away.

Deb: "Carter, wait you shouldn't be moving yet until..." she yells to him. Carter ignores her yelling and continues walking away.

Deb starts to quickly follow him, trying to get him to talk to her, she then catches up and stops in front of him, she looks at him and he looks at her and says.

Carter: "No, Deb I'm okay" "I just slipped on the wet floor" "Nothing broken, I'm good" he says still standing and then beginning to walk to the lounge, while hiding the pain he's in at this time.

Deb: "Are you sure you're okay?" "You should probably get checked over"

Carter: "I'm really okay" he yells back to her over his shoulder. Then she walks again to catch up with him to talk while he is walking down the hall. Now she is walking beside him at the same pace.

Deb: "Really?"

Carter: "Yeah, I'm fine" he says lying. And they begin walking together as she starts a conversation about a patient while Carter is on his way to the lounge.

Deb: "So I have this patient and..."

She is now telling him about a patient's case she has. She continues talking and then Carter gets the dizzy feeling again, but before he can say anything he collapses, falling to the floor motionless. Deb is still walking and talking not knowing that he's not right by her. Then she says something to him.

Deb: "So Carter what do you think?" she says and gets no response back so she then looks behind her and sees Carter not moving, lying on the floor, his eyes closed but still breathing. Deb rushes over to Carter kneeling down to check him over.

Deb: "Carter?" no response, she shines her penlight in his eyes and they respond to it. Susan then walks out of an near by exam room, and she sees Deb Chen on the floor near someone and doesn't think anything of it until she then looks over and sees that it's John.

Susan: "Carter" she says to herself. She then decides to go over to Deb and help with John on the floor.

Susan: "What happened?"

Deb: "He fell down near the admin. desk a few minutes ago, hit his back hard on the floor and his eyes were closed for a few minutes, then he opened them and started to get up and stand, he seemed like he was fine." "I asked him if he was okay." "He said he was fine, he got up and then started walking with me" "We were talking about a patient and I asked him something, he didn't respond so I turned around, he was a few feet behind me and lying on the floor." "After the first fall he said he didn't need a check over, that he was fine then just now he collapsed, he's breathing, not moving, but pupils are responsive to light."

Susan: "Alright let's get him on a gurney into a trauma room" "Malik, I need a backboard, neck brace and gurney over here"

Malik: "Got it" he comes over to them with everything that was asked for.

Malik: "Carter?" He says looking concerned the same as his fellow doctor colleagues.

Deb: "He just dropped to the floor..."

She looks up at Frank, while positioning the gurney to put Carter on it.

Deb: "Frank, what's open?"

Frank: "Trauma 1"

Frank: "What happened to Carter?"he says seeing Carter lying unconscious on the floor.

Susan, Deb and Malik help lift Carter onto the gurney, and then heads down the hall

Deb: "We don't no Frank?" "Don't know?" "We're heading to Trauma 1"

Susan: "Frank, page Kovac, Lockhart and Weaver STAT to Trauma 1" she says over her shoulder to Frank at the admin. desk. While Malik, herself on Carter's right side and Deb the left are all running and pushing the gurney to the awaiting trauma room.

Frank: "Got it, paging them now" he yells to them as their leaving.


	3. Chapter 3

Dr. Lewis, Dr. Chen and Malik rush into the trauma room and start hooking Carter up to the various machines and begin checking him over for any injuries. Susan starts telling Malik the tests to oder for Carter, Dr. Chen is checking his eyes and the left side of the body.

Susan: "Get an ultrasound machine to check for internal bleeding…" "I need CT scan, CBC, Chem7, Tox screen, blood and urine cultures, UA; BAL, ABG; lytes; C-Spine, MRI, portable x-ray, head and abdominal CT; and a trauma panel, STAT"

Susan starts examining Carter's right side of his body, then looks up to Malik and says.

Susan: "While he's stable, page Corday and Benton"

Deb: "Do you think he needs surgery?" she asks.

Susan: "I don't know for sure, but I want them down here either way to tell them what happened" "If they find out about Carter from someone else then they'll be worried, and I would prefer that we tell them what happened to him concerning the situation."

Kerry, Abby and Luka all rush in, but don't notice the unconscious patient laying on the gurney who is their dear friend John Carter.

Peter Benton and Elizabeth Corday rush into the room right behind them.

Benton: "What do you got?"

Susan: "Carter" she states in an uneasy voice to Peter and not looking directly at him for a minute.

Benton: "Excuse me?" Peter his mind now in over drive thinking about Carter being hurt again, he starts firing off all kinds of questions and now waiting for any of them to be answered.

Benton: " What's the extent of the injuries?" "Any blood lose?" "Any..."

Corday: "Peter, slow down and let them answer!"

Corday: "And try to calm down just a little" she says seeing him getting really frustrated with Susan, Deb and everyone else in the room who are not answering his demanding questions.

Susan: "No, I don't think its like that" she says, in reference to the attack that happened to her friend when she wasn't there to help him, as she is thinking her regretful thoughts that began to plague her mind, everyone else in the room especially Luka, Kerry, Abby, Elizabeth and Peter were also all thinking back to that horrible night in February on Valentine's Day exactly 3 years ago when Carter came close to losing his life, and almost his kidney, even his ability to ever walk again by the actions of him being brutally stabbed on what should have been a caring holiday, but instead it turned into a deadly nightmare. The nightmare got even worse when he wasn't even found until later on the next day laying on the floor in deep unconsciousness, still bleeding and having been left for dead.

The doctor's get his vitals stable for the time being. Then they all look at each other, thinking that they have to figure out what is wrong with their friend before something else happens to him.

Carter is laying on the gurney in a sleeping unconscious state, waiting for him to awake. Let's all go out to the hall and talk things over. They all start to walk away to leave the room

Luka: "I'll stay with him"

Susan: "Okay, we'll be right outside the door" Luka nods that he understands and begins looking over the machine's and at his friend's body motionless lying in front of him.

Carter is stable so Susan, Deb, Kerry, Elizabeth, and Peter go out to the hall to talk about Carter's condition.


End file.
